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There was a guy on my local craigslist that had about 30 complete guitar kits that he had bought at some time from Martin as 2nds. I triple checked and all of the "2nds" that I bought had either no visible issues or easily fixable issues. I build ukuleles and this is my first guitar so I really don't know what is out there to get an idea if I got an ok deal or not.

All solid woods of course

- Sitka Spruce top (got it black and uncut since I want to cut the soundhole and do the rosette myself)
- 000 cutaway body, (rosewood) with sides already formed and blocked with kerfed lining installed.
- A three piece back I think it is korina on each side with a rosewood middle. Im not a big fan of three piece
backs and dont know if they are desirable on guitars but the colors are complimentary and it looks interesting.
- Mahogany 14 fret neck with rosewood headplate installed and rosewood fretboard slotted and drilled for dots
- All spruce bracing
$225

was it an ok deal? or should i go back and kick his head in?

He gave me some tuners but they dont look to be Martin quality and I am not going to use them.

I will still need to get tuners, truss rod, bridge material and frets.

Yes, that's an okay deal. Don't kick anyone's head in.

_________________
George :-)

I looked at it again and it appears that the back is actually ovangkol/rosewood/ovangkol and is from the Martin OMC16ogte model. I wish I had the matching Ovangkol sides now.

I think I am going to do it a little different though, either do a McPherson style soundhole or no soundhole and a large side port.

It is interesting that on the Martin factory tour, my guide said that all defective wood parts are incinerated. I bought a kit with Martin parts a few years back, also. I wonder what the true story is regarding Martin parts sold in kits.

This guy had nothing but seconds. He had enough to make about 30 sets. Nothing major though. The back that I bought had a hairline crack in it that was super easy to fix and the fretboard had a small mark on one of the fret slots.

I'm interested in this, too.
I bought a bunch of '2nd' 'Martin' fingerboards a few years ago from an eBay seller. Most of them seem pretty good to me. They definitely weren't incinerated!

Cheers
John